


Left Behind and Moving Forward

by donutsweeper



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Ghosts, Post-Promised Day, Trick Or Treat Prompts Challenge, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2020-12-01 22:44:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20923301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: Promised Day was over and they'd saved the world.The price, however, had been high.





	Left Behind and Moving Forward

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cher](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cher/gifts).

> Thanks to werewolfinatophat for the beta!

"This is the Fullmetal Alchemist's final transmutation. Stand back and enjoy the show!"

The air crackled and Roy could taste that distinctive tang of alchemy in the air as various people shouted Ed's name while others babbled and blathered about the resulting bright light. An ominous silence followed, as if the anticipation to see what would happen had everyone holding their breaths, with the only exception a soft sob. He suspected it came from Mei; although he knew the Lieutenant was still beside him, he didn't ask for confirmation. He didn't really need it, and besides, speaking now seemed… wrong somehow. 

Alchemy sparked again and nearly everyone around him reacted nearly instantaneously. Internally cursing the blindness, Roy asked, "Lieutenant?" just loud enough to be heard over the hubbub, knowing she would understand and explain what everyone else was seeing.

"Alphonse has returned," she replied with an atypical flatness to her tone so Roy waited, knowing there more that must be the reason for the reactions he was hearing. "But Edward... Edward isn't with him. He's alone."

Roy didn't have a response to that. 

The next few hours had Major Armstrong carrying Alphonse to the hospital to receive treatment, something needed by many of the soldiers who had fought that day, Roy and Lieutenant Hawkeye included. The major had taken a few minutes to talk to Roy, describing Alphonse's emaciated condition, but didn't stay long since he needed to head off to see what he could do with the ensuing cleanup. 

Unsurprisingly, the doctors didn't hold out much hope for being able to restore Roy's eyesight, but they did explain that after a "simple" surgery, he should probably regain complete use and full range of motion in his hands again. He consented to the procedure without hesitation, but insisted he be put in the same room as the Lieutenant afterwards; he'd been ready to spin some sort of story about it being easier for his men to guard them against any remaining mutineers that way but there'd been no need and the doctors had readily agreed. Roy suspected it had been done out of pity, but as long as they didn't outright say it and he got what he wanted, he wasn't going to argue the point.

Post-surgery he finally learned the fate of his men: despite some incidents at the radio station Fuery, Breda, and Maria Ross had all emerged unscathed and Falman had obtained a few cuts and scratches due to flying debris and bits of shrapnel from Central's troops' attempts to take Command, but they were minor injuries and barely worth noting. Lieutenant Hawkeye, meanwhile, would need some recuperation time but would heal up fine. A complete report of casualties wasn't available yet and he asked to be informed as soon as it was prepared, but he wound up falling asleep before it could be completed.

That night, or what Roy assumed was night since he could hear two other people in the room with him and recognized from the Lieutenant's deep breathing that she was asleep and Breda's snores were unmistakable as well. He thought about calling for a nurse, but what would he do once they came? Ask them to turn on a light? It wasn't like that was going to change matters any. Light, dark, it wouldn't matter to him. He didn't know how many high ranking officers had ended up either arrested due to their role and complicity in Promised Day or died trying to obtain the immortality they had been promised, but it was unlikely he was going to get a promotion for everything he'd done. It was possible he'd get a chest full of medals and then quietly shuffled off to a desk somewhere if they were truly desperate for warm bodies to fill some of those empty positions, but more likely it would be retirement with a nice enough pension being offered as a way to supposedly cushion the blow. A blind man staying in the military? Let alone being promoted? What were the chances of that?

"What's with the grumpy face, bastard?" It was said barely louder than a whisper, but still had Roy startling in surprise. 

"Fullmetal?" Why hadn't anyone told him of Elric's return? "What are you doing here?"

"Al's asleep. Besides, there's still that matter of that 520 cenz. Don't you want me to pay you back someday?"

Angry, but unwilling to raise his voice and risk waking anyone, Roy retorted, "A blind Führer? What's the likelihood that's going to happen?"

"About as likely as a semi-immortal being creating an artificial country so he can sacrifice its citizens to become a god?"

It took taking several deep, calming breaths, but Roy managed to restrain himself from scrubbing a hand over his face. "Fullmetal…." it came out more like a sigh than anything else.

"Who's going to fix Ishval if you don't? Or make this country a democracy? You think anyone else is going to care at all about any of that?"

"You may not have noticed, but I'm blind." 

"So what? You're talking to someone who became a double amputee at eleven and a State Alchemist at twelve. If it's a future you want bad enough you can make it happen, no matter how unlikely or impossible it might seem to be."

"You make it sound like it'll be easy."

"Easy? Of course it isn't going to be easy! But," Fullmetal's voice dropped, becoming even softer, "what worth doing is?"

It was a fair point, and Roy was still mulling over it when he fell back asleep. 

He woke up to a hushed conversation between Fuery and Breda. "Second Lieutenant?" he called out, trying to pitch his voice quiet enough that if Lieutenant Hawkeye was still sleeping he wouldn't bother her.

"How are you feeling, sir?"

"Fine. I need you to gather some information for me. And, actually, I might need your help too, Sergeant. In the past I'd done some research into the Ishvalan lifestyle prior to the War of Extermination, but I want to brush up on my knowledge so I need books. Information. Whatever you can gather about Ishval, its culture, farming techniques, architecture, resources, any religious taboos or necessities. Anything and everything that might relate to rebuilding that area and helping its people relocate there."

"Colonel?" Lieutenant Hawkeye rasped. "What are you thinking?"

"Ishval paid a terrible price as a result of its position in Father's transmutation circle. I have. No, we have to try to make it right."

"I couldn't agree more, sir. It's what I've always worked for," she replied.

"And after all Scar and his people did for us yesterday?" Breda added. "It's the least we can do."

"Sergeant, you work on gathering the Ishval information, Falman should be able to help you with that if you can find him. We also need intel. Second Lieutenant, I need to find out who still remains among the top brass—which generals were killed, who has been arrested, who's unaccounted for—and where they all are. Also see if that final count of casualties was ever made, broken down to distinguish Central's troops from Briggs' if at all possible." Roy had to raise his voice to be heard over the scraping of chairs being moved out of the way and coats and whatnot being put on as Fuery and Breda prepared to do his bidding to make sure they heard his last request. "Oh, and someone check on the Elrics. I'd like an update on their condition."

There was a sudden, noticeable shock in the cessation of all movement at his request. "Sir?" Fuery finally asked, his voice hesitant and almost squeaking with surprise and concern.

"The Elrics? Alphonse and Edward, I'd like an update on them."

"I thought you knew; I mean, I thought that someone," and the way that Breda emphasized the word 'someone' Roy knew he must have been addressing Lieutenant Hawkeye with his comment, "would have told you...."

"Fullmetal did not return from the other side at the same time his brother did, yes, I am aware of that," Roy said, deciding not to make mention of the clandestine visit he'd received during the night since most likely Breda was supposed to have been on guard then and nothing good would come from admonishing him for falling asleep on the job. "But that doesn't mean that it's still the case, perhaps the situation has changed since then. And either way, after all those boys went through trying to get their bodies back and everything they accomplished in that final battle on Promised Day, I'd like to make sure Alphonse is all right. Or, at least, doing as well as he can be expected. This all must be… overwhelming for him."

"The poor kid," Breda muttered, barely loud enough to be heard over the opening of the door. 

"We'll be back with everything you've asked for as soon as we can, sir."

"Thank you, sergeant. Second lieutenant." Roy dismissed them with a nod in their general direction.

Moments later a nurse came by to take Lieutenant Hawkeye for some quick tests and, after ascertaining he'd be all right on his own in the meantime, promised to return with breakfast when she brought the lieutenant back. 

Left to his own devices for a few minutes Roy began run through lists in his head, trying to consider the various pros and cons of how to present his ideas for rebuilding Ishval to whomever was going to step into Bradley's shoes—General Grumman hopefully, but there was no way to know for certain—and, perhaps a more difficult sell, convincing them to allow a blind man to remain keep his position and rank. 

"Well, either you have the worst case of indigestion you've ever had in your life or you're currently straining that brain of yours harder than you ever have before."

"Fullmetal?" Roy was surprised, he must have been so focused on his thoughts he hadn't heard the door open.

"That's me! I guess you're not going senile in your old age."

"I'll have you know I'm only fourteen years older than you."

"Too bad you act like you're fifty."

Roy decided not to sink to Fullmetal's level and let that dig slide so instead of countering with a short joke he asked, "How is your brother?"

"Al? He's okay, I guess. Skinny as hell and his muscles are so weak doing just about anything wears him out. He sleeps a lot." 

"I suppose it's a big adjustment for him, isn't it?"

Surprisingly, Fullmetal sighed and sounded almost wistful when he replied, "Yeah, bigger than he'd ever expected."

Roy was about to ask what his plans were now, whether or not he was going to be handing in his watch, and if he'd return to Resembool with Alphonse for his recovery when Fullmetal quickly blurted out, "I gotta go," and before Roy could even say goodbye he was gone.

Practically at the same time there was a noise from the corridor and after a sharp knock the nurse from earlier was back, bringing in both Lieutenant Hawkeye and the previously promised breakfast. The difficulties in having to figure out how to eat without being able to see what he was doing distracted him enough that he forgot to ask them if they had passed Edward as he left and whether or not he'd looked all right.

As the meal was finishing Second Lieutenant Breda and Sergeant Feury arrived with Maria Ross in tow. "Got some of those books you asked for, sir," Breda announced as he tromped into the room. "We caught up with Vato. He said he'll be by a little later. He's going to stop by Investigations to see what sort of resources and other materials they have there that he can borrow."

"Borrow or _borrow_," Roy asked, adding air quotes but then grimacing as the movement pulled on the healing stitches in his hands. 

"He didn't say and I didn't think to ask, sorry." Feury sounded a little apologetic, but Breda laughed and there was a noise of… maybe books being dropped on the floor as he said,

"I did, but I knew better than to ask."

"Plausible deniability is an age worn tactic and one you should learn to embrace, Sergeant. Never leave yourself open to having an answer to a question you shouldn't have asked. Finding the information in another way, however, is another matter entirely. Not that I know anything about that, sir," Lieutenant Hawkeye added quickly with that familiar gentle, dry teasing in her tone.

"Of course not." It was an obvious lie, but Roy wouldn't have expected anything else from her- either the information gathering method or the refusal to admit to it. "Did you manage to check in on the Elrics? How are Alphonse and Fullmetal recovering?"

The heavy silence that followed had the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. 

"What aren't you all telling me?"

"Ah, sir, um," Maria began hesitantly, "You know what? I think it'd probably be a good idea if you weren't disturbed for a while so why don't I stand guard outside? It'll give you some privacy for, well, it'll give you some privacy." Without waiting for a response, or a chance for him to order her to stay, she was out the door, letting it swing shut behind her.

Somehow, Roy knew what they were going to tell him. "Fullmetal. He. He never returned from the other side, did he?" It wasn't that he'd been distracted and somehow not heard when Fullmetal had entered or exited the room. There'd been nothing to hear. 

"No, he didn't. Al was sleeping," Breda explained, "so we couldn't ask what happened, what Ed did or how Al managed to come back, but we briefly talked to some, I don't know, self-appointed bodyguards of his who said he's refused to speak about it with anyone."

"Self-appointed bodyguards?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked while Roy mulled everything over. Was he going crazy? Had he imagined the visit? Or had, somehow, someway, it actually happened?

"Four guys. I'd say military or former military by the way they were carrying themselves, right, Kain?" Fuery must have nodded, because Breda continued uninterrupted, "They didn't introduce themselves and we didn't stay long since we didn't want to wake Al, but from what little they said it seemed like they knew Al, and maybe Ed, pretty well. I got the feeling they might have been with the two of them after everything that went down at Briggs."

"There were two," Roy paused as he considered how much he should reveal in an unsecured hospital room. It was probably best not to mention the fact that they had appeared to be chimeras, "men that were fighting with Ed and Scar under Central when we confronted Envy there."

"It was hard to get a good look—" meaning they were probably in human form rather than their chimera forms "—but I believe one of them was on the final battlefield by the Elrics as well, Colonel, along with another man." 

"Then we can assume they are probably the same men that are with Al now." None of which explained how he had managed to talk to a dead man twice in the last twelve hours. Unless Fullmetal wasn't actually dead? 

"Can you two describe them?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked.

"All four were big. Not only bigger than me, but broader too."

Roy was distracted from Breda's description by a soft voice whispering, "You've just about got it figured out, don't you?" in his ear. Fullmetal's voice. Roy stiffened, nodding just enough the movement wouldn't be seen by the others.

"You saw that white world, the one with nothing but those Gates when you were forced to perform human transmutation, didn't you? Al's body had been stuck there for years. I thought I could barter with... Truth, the thing that lives there. My personal Gate for Al's body. My ability to perform alchemy for my brother's life. Joke's on me, it turns out you can't travel back through someone else's Gate." Fullmetal sighed. "Travel back completely anyway. I'm here, but I can only interact with people who've been there. So, you and Al. Well, Teacher too I guess, but I haven't tried. I don't feel like getting yelled at."

"Colonel?" Lieutenant Hawkeye brought his attention back to the others in the room.

"I'm sorry," Roy said, knowing Fullmetal would realize it was addressed to him and not the others. "While I'm glad Alphonse isn't alone right now, in the end it doesn't matter who is with him. As much as he's been basically a part of the office for the past few years he was, technically, never military. We'll look after him, of course, and ensure he receives all the benefits due to him as Fullmetal's dependent and the sole claimant of his estate, but technically there's not much else we can do. It's not much, not after everything he and his brother did for us and all of Amestris, but I hope he'll know we're here for him—just as we would have been for Fullmetal himself—if he ever needs us and make sure he feels welcome to come to us whenever he'd like, now and in the future. So. Anyway. Onto Ishval. What did you bring me?"


End file.
